Anika Noni Rose to Headline A.C.T. Season Gala, 4/18

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) and gala co-chairs Lesley Clement and Carlie Wilmans are proud to announce A.C.T.'s 2009-10 season gala, the Crystal Ball. San Francisco First Lady and A.C.T. Conservatory alumna Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Ken McNeely, president, AT&T California, serve as honorary co-chairs. AT&T is the presenting sponsor for the event. Headlining this special evening is one of the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program's most celebrated graduates, Tony Award-winning actress Anika Noni Rose, whose credits include roles on film (the lead in Disney's The Princess and the Frog and Dreamgirls) and Broadway (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Caroline, or Change).

The modern architectural landmark Yerba Buena Center's Forum will be a perfect backdrop for one of the most anticipated cultural events of the season, which benefits A.C.T.'s renowned conservatory. The A.C.T. Conservatory provides training for children as young as eight to adults and seniors through its Master of Fine Arts Program, Young Conservatory, Studio A.C.T., and Summer Training Congress. Rose will perform alongside current A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program and Young Conservatory students, in a performance created and directed by acclaimed director Mark Rucker (The Rainmaker and The Beard of Avon at A.C.T. and the film Die, Mommy, Die!).

Join San Francisco's most prominent community leaders in supporting A.C.T.'s award-winning conservatory with this fun and star-studded event on Sunday, April 18, 2010, at San Francisco's Forum (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts). Tickets, at individual and table sponsorship levels, are now available. For more information about the gala, please visit A.C.T.'s website at www.act-sf.org/gala

Says A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff: "One of the most celebratory moments of the year for A.C.T. is our annual gala, in which we salute our remarkable school and raise scholarship funds to support new generations of acting talent. So it is especially thrilling that one of the most luminous of A.C.T.'s alumni, Anika Noni Rose, has agreed to headline this fabulous event. Anika stands for everything we treasure at A.C.T.: imagination, tenacity, artistry, passion, courage, commitment, and devotion to her craft. Listening to her perform and speak at the gala will be the best possible testimonial to the power of actor training and the deep commitment A.C.T. has made to the future of the art form."

Crystal Ball co-chairs Clement and Wilmans add: "We're building on the energy of the 100th anniversary of our gorgeous theater, and we promise this event is going to be an incredibly special evening." Clement and Wilmans are both members of the A.C.T. Board of Trustees and have been longtime supporters of the arts and arts education in the Bay Area. "Hearing our students raise their joyful voices in song at the A.C.T. gala each season is just magic! Seeing such tremendous talent blossom and grow through training in A.C.T's conservatory is very rewarding. These young people are the talent and arts audiences of the next generation."

A.C.T. is thrilled to have AT&T as presenting sponsor of the Crystal Ball. "AT&T is proud to partner with A.C.T. to build support for its conservatory programs and scholarship funds as presenting sponsor of the Crystal Ball this season," says Ken McNeely, president, AT&T California, and Crystal Ball honorary co-chair. "As a major contributor to education programs in our community, AT&T is delighted to support the exceptional actor training programs of A.C.T.'s conservatory-programs that shape the talent of heralded actors such as Anika Noni Rose and enable students from diverse backgrounds to realize their dreams to join the next generation of theater artists."

Proceeds from the gala benefit A.C.T.'s acclaimed conservatory, led by Melissa Smith, which annually serves more than 2,200 students through its acclaimed actor-training programs and represents an integral part of A.C.T.'s mission. Ranked as one of the top programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program functions as the cornerstone of the A.C.T. Conservatory, which also includes the Summer Training Congress, Studio A.C.T., and the Young Conservatory. Elizabeth Banks, Benjamin Bratt, Annette Bening, Danny Glover, Anika Noni Rose, and Denzel Washington are among the conservatory's distinguished former students. With its commitment to excellence in actor training and to the relationship between training, performance, and audience, the A.C.T. Conservatory has moved to the forefront of America's actor training programs, while serving as the creative engine of the company at large.

For more information, please visit www.act-sf.org/conservatory.

American Conservatory Theater is a Tony Award-winning theater and educational institution dedicated to nurturing the art of live theater through Dynamic Productions, intensive actor training in its conservatory, and an ongoing dialogue with its community. A.C.T. embraces its responsibility to conserve, renew, and reinvent its relationship to the rich theatrical traditions and literatures that are our collective legacy, while exploring new artistic forms and new communities. A commitment to the highest standards informs every aspect of A.C.T.'s creative work. Founded in 1965, A.C.T. opened its first San Francisco season at the historic Geary Theater in 1967; more than 320 productions have since been performed to a combined audience of more than seven million people. Today A.C.T. is recognized nationally for its groundbreaking productions of classical works and bold explorations of contemporary playwriting, honored with a Tony Award for outstanding theater performance and training (1979) and the prestigious Jujamcyn Theaters Award (1996). The first actor training program in the United States not affiliated with a college or university accredited to award a master of fine arts degree, A.C.T.'s conservatory has moved to the forefront of America's actor training programs, while serving as the creative engine of the company at large.

Most recently, you may have heard Anika Noni Rose as the voice of Princess Tiana in Disney's The Princess and the Frog. A self-motivated young woman with a big dream, Rose's Tiana is a new and special kind of princess and has led The Princess and the Frog to three Oscar nominations, including Animated Feature Film and Original Song ("Almost There"). Rose also made her first trip to Africa with The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, portraying secretary Mma Makutsi. Shot entirely on location in Botswana, it was director Anthony Minghella's last project and aired on HBO and the BBC. Tony Award winner Rose was classically trained at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater. She transitioned to the Broadway stage a couple of months after moving to New York, with a featured role in Footloose. She followed that with the off-Broadway Laura Nyro retrospective, Eli's Comin', garnering an OBIE Award. Her next stage project was Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change, which went from The Public Theater, where she earned a Lucille Lortel Award for her portrayal of Emmie Thibodeaux, to Broadway in the spring of 2004, where she received the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, the Theatre World Award, the Clarence Derwent Award, and a Drama Desk Award nomination. Rose took the play to the West Coast, where she picked up the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and an Ovation Award. Her next stop was the big screen, playing Lorrell Robinson in Bill Condon's Dreamgirls. The movie received an American Film Institute (AFI) ensemble award and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award. Rose herself was nominated for an NAACP Award, and both the soundtrack and the song "Patience" were nominated for Oscars. From there it was back to Broadway, where Rose starred as Maggie the Cat in Deborah Allen's acclaimed production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Rose has sung all over the world, including at the 79th Annual Academy Awards and the Vatican.